Newbie with some questions...I am confused.

[DeathtoToasters]

I am sure the information I am going to ask is spread out through several threads, but I have been reading for almost the whole weekend and still am confused on a few things.

I use Itunes now, mainly because they have a good assortment of music and I like to download singles songs alot. I also listen to alot of podcasts.

If I get ANY player otherwise then an IPOD, am I not going to be able to transfer any of those songs, podcasts, or audiobooks to the new device and listen?

What is this DMR everyone is talking about? I am assuming it is some sort of encryption/protection protocol. (I think)

Is the video playback FPS on the Ipod (30) going to make a whole big difference then the X5 (15) FPS? When watching flicks on a screen that small?

Is the screen size (either Ipod or X5) really good enough to watch a full length movie?

I have been reading that the X5 does NOT have ID3 support. Maybe it is me, but doesn't that make tagging files, listing files, finding files, VERY different then the rest of the industry?

Is not have ID3 tags going to make cataloging my collection on my PC a mess?

Is there a date on the X5L 60gig yet for release in the US or overseas provider that will ship to the US?

Thanks for all your help with these repeat questions. I am just in a bind and need to make a decision soon.

[Lighter]

Originally Posted by DeathtoToasters

I use Itunes now, mainly because they have a good assortment of music and I like to download singles songs alot. I also listen to alot of podcasts.

If I get ANY player otherwise then an IPOD, am I not going to be able to transfer any of those songs, podcasts, or audiobooks to the new device and listen?

What is this DMR everyone is talking about? I am assuming it is some sort of encryption/protection protocol.

Here are some starting answers;

DRM - Digital Rights Management - gets folks in a tizzy. It is the method publishing companies use to control your purchases. When Cowon implements DRM it is not likely to be usable with iTunes. Apple has this thing about not playing friendly. iTunes exists to hook folks into iPods.

I use iTunes, but from the start I've been working around the DRM so that working with the iAudio has not been much of an issue. Essentially, you have to burn your purchases to a CD and then rip that CD. That gets rid of the DRM and, unfortunately, the ID3 tags. So, after ripping I restore the ID3 tags and file the music into a folder structure. Genre, Artist, Album, Song. Because I've been doing that all along I was ready to drag and drop from the get go.

I can't answer on podcasts. But they are available a lot of places other than iTunes. Also no answer on audio books. I ASSume they can be burned and ripped?

[DeathtoToasters]

Originally Posted by Lighter

Here are some starting answers;

DRM - Digital Rights Management - gets folks in a tizzy. It is the method publishing companies use to control your purchases. When Cowon implements DRM it is not likely to be usable with iTunes. Apple has this thing about not playing friendly. iTunes exists to hook folks into iPods.

I use iTunes, but from the start I've been working around the DRM so that working with the iAudio has not been much of an issue. Essentially, you have to burn your purchases to a CD and then rip that CD. That gets rid of the DRM and, unfortunately, the ID tags. So, after ripping I restore the ID tags and file the music into a folder structure. Genre, Artist, Album, Song. Because I've been doing that all along I was ready to drag and drop from the get go.

I can't answer on podcasts. But they are available a lot of places other than iTunes. Also no answer on audio books. I ASSume they can be burned and ripped?

Ok here is something I also don't understand. When I right click on any of the music I have in my Itunes, I can copy the files or convert it to ACC. Which makes me think that it is in MP3 format to start with. If that is true, then it should not be a problem to just copy and paste it into the Iaudio player.

Am I think about this the right way?

The same thing for my podcasts.

AHHHHHH I just noticed something, whne I pasted it to my desktop it copied it as a MPEG4 (protected) File.
Hmmmm that may be an issue huh?

[Lighter]

Originally Posted by DeathtoToasters

Is the video playback FPS on the Ipod (30) going to make a whole big difference then the X5 (15) FPS? When watching flicks on a screen that small?

Is the screen size (either Ipod or X5) really good enough to watch a full length movie?

A couple more answers while waiting for the big guns to chime in:

Until somebody actually holds a new iPod we won't know for sure. From the specs the picture should be better. But there appears to be real limits on what Apple will let you watch. Again, a lot of answers have to wail until somebody has purchased one of these things.

As for viewability. For the heck of it I transferred Run Lola Run onto my X5. I had not watched it - new. I didn't make it through the credits on the iAudio. Then I watched it for real on the big system. A day later I tried again on the X5. Because I had seen it, the second time on the X5 wasn't awful. I admit to a lot of fast forwarding to the "good" spots.

[Flutje]

I have no clue as to what is going on with Itunes so I can't answer any of that.

I do however listen to audiobooks on my X5 with a lot of pleasure:-) Most of my audiobooks are in mp3 format some in wmv.

As to playback of video. Well I don't think it's going to make a whole lot of difference. To start with, looking at an entire movie on suchs a small screen is no fun. I watched some episodes of Stargate and that is even to long. Watching cartoons etc is long enough (30 minutes).

So even on a higher fps this would stay the same. It's a small screen so watching to long is annoying.

Not having ID3 support (for the moment) is indeed very different than most of the industry. But it's not a real problem. Just categorize into folders (genre, artis, album, songs).
Not a lot of work and easy browsing and finding what you are looking for.

Martin

[DeathtoToasters]

Here is a solution for converting protected MPEG4 Itunes and WM files...it works great...just tried it....works great....

Converts while playing or do a drag and drop batch mode.

www.tunebite.com

It is only $17.00 not bad....to get away from these annoying problems.

[CBEar]

Originally Posted by DeathtoToasters

If I get ANY player otherwise then an IPOD, am I not going to be able to transfer any of those songs, podcasts, or audiobooks to the new device and listen?

If you bought the music from the iTunes music store then it is most likely in AAC format and will NOT be compatible with the X5 or any other player. Podcasts and audiobooks are a different story. Podcasts are typically mp3s and are compatible. You can use a program like Ipodder to get your podcasts without iTunes. And as long as the audiobook is from your own cd, or is in mp3 format and is not purchased from iTunes, you should be set.

Originally Posted by DeathtoToasters

What is this DMR everyone is talking about? I am assuming it is some sort of encryption/protection protocol. (I think)

Like the posters above mentioned, DRM is a way for companies to control your media files, keeping you from transfering them to an infinite number of computers, file sharing, etc. There are ways around it, but even if you remove the DRM from your iTunes songs, I don't think they'll be playable on the x5.

Originally Posted by DeathtoToasters

Is the video playback FPS on the Ipod (30) going to make a whole big difference then the X5 (15) FPS? When watching flicks on a screen that small?

The video quality on the new Ipod is likely to be better than the x5, a bit smoother, and I think the screen has a slightly higher resolution. The trade off here is that the new Ipod will only last 2 hours playing videos, whereas the X5 lasts about 6 I believe. Furthermore, it remains to be seen what kind of video you'll be able to load onto the new Ipod or if it will only be Apple formats, which could be quite limiting. In any case if video playback is really important to you, consider a device like the A2 or other player made specifically for video.

Originally Posted by DeathtoToasters

I have been reading that the X5 does NOT have ID3 support. Maybe it is me, but doesn't that make tagging files, listing files, finding files, VERY different then the rest of the industry?

This is true, currently the X5 does not organize music via ID3 tags. However, I have found its not very hard to organize your music in folders. Many individuals on the board use a program called Mediamonkey to organize their music. It's very helpful, reads the ID3 takes, and will organize them all into folders based on criteria that you assign. It may seem complicated, but your going to have to do some organizing anyway unless every single one of your ID3 tags is perfect, which I doubt. No one's are. In my use of the X5 I never have a problem finding what I want.

Originally Posted by DeathtoToasters

Is not have ID3 tags going to make cataloging my collection on my PC a mess?

See above. Mediamonkey will go a long way in helping you with this. You can edit multiple files at once, and move files into directories based on ID3.

Originally Posted by DeathtoToasters

Is there a date on the X5L 60gig yet for release in the US or overseas provider that will ship to the US?

This I'm unsure of. If you check out the news page you'll see eCost is reporting that they have them, so we should start seeing the show up at various online retailers before too long.

Hope that helped

[En_croute]

IDTags
The X5 (and most other players) display your ID tags on screen, but does not have a database, so you cannot select by Artist, Albulm, Genre etc etc.

I use the Artist/Albulm/nameoftrack1.mp3 configuration - you'll find other suggestions in this forum.
And compilations are in seperate folder, as are my Audio Books.

Playlists can get you round the need to jump around too much.
I don't miss a idTag database as much as I thought I would - but I'd be happy if/when Cowon introduce one, but the delay is based on the fact that in their current key market (Korea) it's not a big selling point.